Appearing in the wake of the Z-Library shutdown late 2022, shadow library 'Anna's Archive' now bills itself as the "largest truly open library in human history." A complaint filed in December 2023 by the Italian Publishers Association, which represents publishers of books, scientific journals, and digital content, paints a somewhat different picture. As a result, telecoms regulator AGCOM has issued immediate blocking instructions to ISPs.

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Over the past decade, platforms including Sci-Hub, Libgen and Z-Library have broken through a sea of movie, TV show, music and similarly unlicensed platforms to take their own places on the piracy front lines.

In 2022, a platform called Pirate Library Mirror appeared on the scene, courting controversy right from the start after obtaining a full copy of Z-Library before the site’s legal troubles began.

“We deliberately violate the copyright law in most countries. This allows us to do something that legal entities cannot do: making sure books are mirrored far and wide,” the team behind ‘PiLiMi’ wrote.

In November 2022, PiLiMi team member ‘Anna Archivist’ founded ‘Anna’s Archive‘, a platform promising access to Z-Library and Libgen content from the same interface. Just over a year later, the site describes itself as the “largest truly open library in human history” mirroring Sci-Hub, Libgen, Z-Library, and other platforms, to offer 25.5 million books and 99.4 million papers for download.

90% of Italian Publishing Market Behind Complaint

Anna’s Archive is a relative newcomer to the world of online shadow libraries, but its impact has already ensured the inevitable. In common with its counterparts who are already blocked by ISPs in several countries, a year after its launch Anna’s Archive will receive the same treatment, starting in Italy.

On December 4, 2023, the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) filed a copyright complaint against Anna’s Archive. Founded in 1869, AIE represents publishers of books, scientific journals, and digital content; together, these companies control 90% of the local market. AIE’s complaint lists over 30 books, but the association stresses this represents just a sample of the content distributed by Anna’s Archive to which its members hold the rights.

A sample of books listed in the complaint

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“The site annas-archive.org calls itself a mirror of various ‘shadow libraries’ and claims to have over 25 million books and nearly 100 million scholarly articles, which it makes available by disseminating numerous links to each work. Unauthorized reproductions of works belonging to Italian publishers number several thousand,” the complaint reads.

Investigation Led to Ukraine

An investigation by Italy’s Digital Services Directorate verified that the content listed in the complaint was actually accessible from Anna’s Archive. In view of the facts, that led investigators to believe that this was probably a case of “serious and massive infringement.”

Official papers indicate that the operator of Anna’s Archive proved “unidentifiable” but with assistance from Cloudflare, Epinatura LLC – a hosting provider in Kiev, Ukraine – was identified as the likely host of at least some of the platform’s servers. Notifications were sent to various service providers warning that “spontaneous compliance” with a blocking request filed by the publishers was a potential outcome.

Decision: Site Must Be Blocked

With no counterclaims received from the contacted parties and having determined mass infringement on the site, an order to disable https://annas-archive.org through a DNS block was issued to Italian ISPs, to be completed in 48 hours. Visitors to the site are now greeted by the blocking page below in Italian. (translation on the right)

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While Anna’s Archive operates alternative domains that aren’t specifically mentioned in the order (annas-archive.gs, annas-archive.se), the site faces perpetual blocking measures against “all future domain names of the same site.”

If the shadow library wishes to challenge the decision, it has until the middle of February to file a response before the Lazio Regional Administrative Court. All things considered, that seems unlikely.

*sighs*
Looks like VPN's will become a necessary tool to continue to access content.

I remember my first foray into VPN's 15 years ago. I was not impressed. It slowed everything down!
Its lots better, but it still adds a relay to anything done on the web. The relay slows everything down.